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yJJy^ V O E T R Y, 





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METAPR7SI0AI. SKETOHSS 



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ANECDOTES. 



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BY N. P. JOHNSTON 



PS 2144 
.J4 
1835 
Copy 1 



{Copy right secured.) 
BOSTON : 

PRINTED rOR THE ATMHOK. 

1835. 



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POETRY. 



The Lion, 



Op form erect in shaggy mane, 

The lion reigns alone; 
The wild — the wilderness — the plaih^ 

By prowess makes his own. 

He rules, he kills— but kills to eat 

As food to satisfy ; 
And leaved the oris for others' meat, 

To quench their hunger by. 

No prowling beast dares interfere, 

Long as he's on the prey ; 
For he might in an instant tear 

It from the light of day. 

No beast, nor fowl, his power can claim, 

Of all the regions wild : 
No beast, nor fowl that's wild or tame 

On earth — n^ajestic pile. 



Dwellers in the Country; their Sabbafh. 

Lovely the scene as orient tints disclose 
Their Sabbath holy !— when, from sweet repose, 
With purest hearts they rise and soar in prayer. 
Disrobed of carnal and domestic care . 



In guarded acts they cheerful pass the morn. 
And as the hallowed moments flow along, 
Bedizen in cleanly garb they wincj their way 
To yonder spire which glistens in the ray. 
In foot-paths walled with clustered vines they tread, 
Then thwart the pasture-plain and downy mead ; 
While limb to limb the yareful squirrel vaults, 
And, for to gaze awhile, as yareful halts : 
Attendant too, the plumy natives are, — 
The grazing herd, the several flocks are there. 
Now,in the Temple, with the goodly Priest, 
They have arrived ; and, bustle having ceased, 
Do bend in prayer as Christian like, do sing: 
E'en the coy biding with their praises ring ! 
purest Eden ! — if impure can praise, — 
Thou wast elysian, as the Scripture says. 



Jtfore magic the predominance of Judicious Reason, 
Yes, magic more than vernal prospect seems, 
When erst the sun across the foliage gleams. 
From whence — and as — each nymph of matin light 
Unfolds her rich embroidery to sight ; 
Or, than their hues that tint the western zone. 
Ere mantling eve resumes her latent throne ; 
Or than her shade that studded gives the scene 
Of countless spangles, restless and serene, — 
Circling, forth sparkling from the skies expanse. 
Of mystic movement, not unmeaning chance : 
Or, than the moon, the welkin queen appears, 
High bland in air of August eves endears, — 
Than she, when crystal clad of fullest form — 
Of chastened mein doth live the arch along : 
Is magic more within the Human Kind, 
When Reason's solemn noiseless substance rules the 
mind. 



^ 



Steamboat. 

See ! it is coming to the key, 
With passengers on board : 

See ! once more it has arrived, 
And through the waters oared. 

'Gainst wind and tide this boat 
With powerful speed will fly ; 

In raging noise and dashing wave, 
Tremendous to the ear and eye ! 

But, while huzzas in jovial freak, 
May from the crew arise ; 

Belike, at once, the caldron bursts ! 
And every pleasure dies. 

Then, hapless, helpless on the deck 
Might many a victim lie ; 

Expecting every moraeni to 
Breathe out this life for aye. 



" The Minute Gun at Sea. 

Let them who sigh in sadness here, 
Rejoice, and know a friend is near : — 
What heavenly sounds are those I hear ! 
What being comes the gloom to cheer ? — 
When in the storm on Albion's coast, , 

The night watch guards his weary post, 
From thoughts of danger free ; 
He marks some vessel's flashy form, 
And hears amid the howling storm, 
The minute gun at sea. 

Swift from the shore a hardy few — 

The life-boat man with a gallant crew, 

And dare the dangerous wave ; 

Through the wild surf they Cleave their #a(y^ 

Lost in the foam, nor know dismay, 



6, 

For they go the crew to save. — 

Then, oh ! what rapture iills each breast, 

Of the hapless crew of the ship distressed ; 

When landed safe, what joys to tell, 

Of all the dangers that befel ! 

Now, is heard no more, by the watch on the shore, 

The minute gun at sea." 

For Tyranny of late has cunning grown, 

Poland is fallen ! As she fell. 

Her sounding arms^ the passing bell ! 

A breathing begged ? — No being breathed 

A paltry wish, the boon to crave : 

But, like of yore, their steels unsheathed, 

Their souls to own, or dying, save. 

When erst her cry in bugle high. 

Each champion spurred him on to die, — 

" Undying this, if Virtue we 

Uphold ; — be teaching Liberty ! 

Have aught a charm — would earth or sky, 

If cowered we from Victory ?" 

^^ Ask not !" — '' Unasked of foefhan's eye ! 

Unheard, unknown, the parting sigh, — 

But, Russians, ye a gallant train, 

Bv sordid avarice bidden here : 

Befooled, ye dye the burnished spear ! 

'Tis bootless ! then must subjects bleed ?" 

Ay tyranny — and wait the meed. — 

Thunder ! and blending blaze and blades 

Glare brazen ! lo ! the horrid shades 

Wrap raging and the reeling man — 

But darkness hides, — 

Save, limbed upon the smoky flood, 

Or, vaulting from its sable sides. 

The mangled, ploughing, pitching stud — 

The trammelled rider, eke in blood — 



Blurred in the battle ; that roaring still, 
Shook under earth ; — the distant hill 
Back brays re-echoing war ! 
Meads quiver, hollows, rocky crags, 
Yell numbers from their serrate jaggs, 
That onw^ard, downward, and afar, , 
Do bellowing whirl ! The rumbling jar, 
Now mumbling in tombs, the martyred dead, 
Roused, wakened from their ashes bed, 
Reared upward, and '' immortal" — said, 
"IsPola^nd!" 



The loss of Poland ; — and Polish Exiles. 

In noble defiance for freedom forthstood ; 

Ye did what lofty humanity could ! 

Aught left was undone, that was pious and brave, 

Your country, your kindred, from thraldom to save? 

Alas/ unavailing, foes compassed the soil; 

Did inward upon you to rapine and spoil — 

To spoil you of freedom ! too deep was the deed ! 

Still deep, for in exile the innocent bleed ; 

Deep wounded, they languish, away from the spot, 

Ne'er again to inhabit the once smiling cot : — 

The close bosomed friend — their children — the old, 

No more are beheld, ay, ceased to behold ! 

Even thus, not alone, as though to descry 

Beyc nd scarce the limits of frail nature's eye : 

No, the faith of the faithful foreshowing to sight; 

Lo ! enrobed are you all in etherial light ; 

Unspotted, and endless, spiritual are; — 

**Fain ! fain ! do we live — from yon exile afar, — 

Where the deathless indeed, from the dying do 

speed, 
For pure Heaven's regions, for Heaven's pure 

meed?" 



8 
The source of Infancy congenial with 

adult worth, and assuaging to cares. 

There is a charm that lives round infancy, 
That chuckles fancy to return awhile : 
It sweetly summons with an artless smile! 
It speaks at once, the angol, and the child; 
It lisps a spirit pure — without impurity. 
There, natal, hie, when life a tempest gives ; 
There, ever green and graced, the flower lives : — 
Leave watery glooms, high-arching, kiss the sky, 
And, like the rainbow, then the treble tie ! 

Childhood. 

Soon childhood comes — but never soon departs, 
For, seemingly, annual, from its dawning starts. 
Dreams of some ugly rock with black abyss ; 
Afore in vision as a precipice — 
Where Satan, horrid mass from skull to hoof, 
Was weened to plunge anon, and rise aloof! 

When rising vapore. 

When rising vapors, gathering fire, 
Burst, boiling, in commotion dire. 
Athwart the heavens in thunders roll, 
In lightnings rend the flashing clouds — 
As wildly impetuous now they stroll, 
And broaching now in sable crowds : — 
Man, mortal man, the touch of God ! 
Marks the dread scene that hovers, lowers ; 
Awe-stricken by the powers abroad, 
The while the dismal hour, adores! 

The vexations of this Life. 

Ah! who this nether world enjoys. 
Who wtry, well his day employs, 



A busy foe his back besets; 

Some momentary ill alloys, 

Some other guised in front decoys ; 

So, scarce a moment's peace he gets, 

But many a minute's peace destroys, 

Until at eventide he sets. 



Virtue in Youth^ and the glory of virtue. 

Auspicious youth whose morning flows 
With every hue which morning knows, 
Thine whole of Virtue's bloom : 
To vice averse, each beauty beams, 
And rich the royal treasure teems, 
Ere its expanse, and full perfume. 

To heaven thine awful spirit soars, 
Reads wonders, wondrous power adores, 
Witiiin the range of thought! 
Enrap^red with the life that is, 
What bliss to deem advancing 'tis; 
From sublunary wrought. 

O Virtue ! germ in nature's soil, 

Though oft may nature's workings foil, 

Though nature chafes the soul : 

Lo, hence shall every evil cease, 

Pure polished thou, for realm of peace, 

Wilt leave the wayward goaL 

O! then propitious choice in thou 

Who not to earth, to Satan bow ; — 

But bendest down to Heaven ! 

Scarce e'en fulfilled the mighty scheme, 

By bending, towering, seraphim! 

The Vanity of Wealth. 

BY DR. JOHNSON. 

No more thus brooding o'er yon heap, 
With avarice painful vigils keep; 



10 

Still unenjoyed the present stor^, 
Still endless sighs are breathed for more. 
Oh! quit the shadow, catch the prize, 
Which not all India's treasure buys ; 
To purchase heaven has gold the powtr? 
Can gold remove the mortal hour? 
In life can love be bought with gold? 
Are friendship's pleasures to be sold? 
No, all that's worth a wish — a thought, 
Fair virtue gives, unbribed, unbought. 
Cease then on trash thy hopes to bind ; 
Let nobler views engage thy mind. 

On the loss of corporeal healthy and es- 
trangement of the senses. 
Thou source of sublunary charm^ 
Oh health! on thee I sadly muse! 
My bosom reft of every calm ; 
No soothing hope of healing balm : 
'Tvvas else at dawn, as thought reviews! — 
Thrice poignant to my weary soul. 

Though once in bright cohesion mine, 
How short in tranquil union, there: 
Alas ! for sin, what virtues thine 
That glimmered from thy budding shrine; 
O'ercast, involving in despair. 
Distracting, trancing nature's whole. 

Then why in trembling thought to deem, 
That twain could kindly aid dispart? 
Ah! would my fearful fancy dream. 
Unwonted pleasures still would teem. 
When virtue bleeding in my heart, 
And vice its mystic cords entwined! 

Disast'rous nature sin has swayed ; 
If now dethroned, how sad the change ; 



11 

Nature within,— without arrayed 

In cheerless scenes, — in health decayed: 

Unceasing sad where'er I range , 

Wide . . . and, as joys of health, refined. 



The favors of lucubration. 

There's something lives the astral bend beneath, 
Which pictures God more ample than the day ! 
Love to the glowing soul! The buxom wreath— 
But, ah ! of childhood's pranks, why fades the bay ? 
'Say you ye coffin'd youth of friendly way! 
Be then the eve, the spangled eve sublime, 
Commingled with, and known its mental sway. 

With woes a magic train. 

How oft with being all estranged--T^ 
With flesh and spirits sadly changed — 
With woes a magic tre^in: 
Man longs extinction — frantic thought! 
All else to dare, but earth, (in short,) 
To ease his ghostly brain. 

Ah, devious one, when faith combiner 

A living mirror glows, refines, — 

Can aught so e'er appal? 

Alas! when foes dark intervene, 

Or woes, less darksome, damp the acqn^ 

May 'wildered nature fall. 

Sincere belief in the charity of Providence 

every thing here and hereafter. 
This life wears not a charm for me, 
Save whence mysterious faith 
Whispers, This vast Eternity, 
Lives the amnific, boundless God; 
Omai^ieat Om ! who will reward 



12 

All creatures of his works abroad,- — 
And fatherly too, it saith. 

Seemed a small voice — a voice sublime, 
When drooped my soul with care, — 
More touching than yon temples' chime, — 
To trill each nerve so finely great, 
Did ease anon of anxious weight; 
And breathes, ere long, I'll consecrate 
Above — in mansion there. 

Comes from the heaven of heaven?, this balm? 

It seems a mystery! 

But, faith aspiring, tell the charm : 

Flit ye thro' time — from nether waste 

Mount up the skies, and echo chaste, 

Holy, holy realm! resting place 

Of immortality. 

Immortal worth victorious over death and 

perishing matter. 

Withdraw, nor mortal the Immortal tempt! 
No thought discursive — attolent and fixed ; 
Unarmed no corner. Flattery to probe : 
Transient its gifts, as gifted as itself — 
All in decursion to the bed of death. 
Alas! surprising not the spirit should 
Terrific see in imagery prone, a wide abyf?s, 
And hastening from the sight, with suppliant 
Cry, beg, as of clay, one hour to prepare. — 
Can this imbrute? Contumely such in 
Dotage, veering to the lures of sin? 
Nay, rather the Immortal be unblamed; 
And foe to flattery, but by terror vex'd, 
In phrenzied vision it would shrink with awe — 
Yet earnest to be free. — Death in its wanton 
Trail of forms uncouth, some thousand years 



13 

Has tried, and tried in vain. Immortal to 
Expugn — nor else than speed him to the verge 
Of heaven. But hist! angelic voices echo on 
My ear! Frail flatterer vanish, for I near 
The prize: hail, ether home! mellifluous 
Sweetness, hail! On ether pinions as we waft 
To thee, we breathe the praises of redeeming 
Love — till, in the choral of extalic saints, 
Shall meet harmonious with etherial fire! 



The Pilgrims^ procession^ or the journey 

of life. 
So trav'leth life, its cherished boon, . 
Few do the bounty know ; 
For from the womb unto the tomb. 
In travail most do go : 

In strangely moving train ; 

All ages in the throng; 

Some look behind, beyond, (in vain,) — 

Would stay, or haste along. 

Fondly the one before 
Would welcome on his kind, 
Vainly we each would welcome o'er, 
Who yet remain behind. 

Ere long, and there with ihine; — 
On then, nor note the stay : 
A far-borne star at eve may shine, 
Next eve another may. 

Ye myriads yet unborn — 

The hapless and the glad! 

Must march, as ushers in the morn, 

The gay aside the mad. 

And J oh! when we have journey'd o'er, 
May none unhappy /journey more; 



14 

But live to Him, high thron'd in heaven, 
With souls as free, from sins forgiven : 
Love, in eternal love and pure, 
With Him communing, God adore. 

God's will be done! for that to do, 
Is love. — Saviour of all, we undergo 
Nor less, nor more, than what we know: 
The tranquil blest, the troubled so. 

JL compassionate High Priest. Heb. 4.15. 

*^ When gathering clouds around I view, 
And days are dark, and friends are few, 
On him I lean, who, not in vain, 
Experienced ev'ry human pain; 
He feels my griefs, he sees my fears. 
And counts and treasures up my tears. 

If aught should tempt my soul to stray 

From heavenly wisdom's narrow way, 

To fly the good ! would pursue, 

Or do the ill I would not do ; 

Still he, who felt temptation's power, 

Shall guard me in that dangerous hour. 

When vexing thoughts within me rise, 
x\nd, sore dismayed, my spirit dies; 
Then he, who once vouchsafed to bear 
The sickening anguish of despair, 
Shall sweetly soothe, shall gently dry> 
The throbbing heart, the streaming eye. 

When sorrowing o'er some stone I bend. 
Which covers all that was a friend, 
And from his voice, his hand, his smile. 
Divides me for a little while; 
Thou, Saviour, seest the tears I shed, 
For thou didst weep o'er Laz'rus dead. 



15 

And, oh! when we have safely past, 
Through ev'ry conflict but the last, 
Still, still unchanging, watch beside 
The bed of death — for thou hast died: 
Then point to realms of endless day, 
And wipe the latest tear away." 

Fabulous. 

Thence entering — lo! a being there, 
And wrapt in all the pangs of care ; 
Keen anguish blended with despair, 
Shone plainly in his frantic air! 
*' Friend, (! spake)— what has befel — 
My service thine — the trouble tell!" 
With heartfelt groan, he only said — 
" Here, I can lay my breaking head. 
Here, thus forlorn, my dying bed!" 
My soul, the scene, enveloped wide : 
*' Alas! had reason been the guide 
Unsullied from thy morning's bloom, 
Would nature wanton with the tomb. 
Infuriate, overwhelmed with gloom?" 
Such flashed my mind — for down 1 bent. 



The ivays of Omnipotence past find- 

ing out. 
Around what solemn sameness, man to thee, 
Mantling in occult majesty the Lord ; 
So, varied scarce this vision notes abroad. 
This darkling mind: O! who? — Immensity 
Which nought is, aught is, mortal and supreme, 
Knows but the Maker — who? the boundless scheme? 

Yet what this Might and whence, of seraphs ask 
May man — but hark ! — " Thou stumblest in thine 
own, 



16 

And ages multiplied, and yet unknown: 
E'en we whose residence be highest cast, 
Selves higher still, and higher yet commune, 
Scan orbs uprolling and empyreal noon! 

inimitably, co-eternal knit, 

In god-head, wisdom wheelinor every ball ; 

Upward revolving, they revolving^fall: — 

Hence, rising, thence! Continuous orbits! 

Thence anon hence in august duty turn, 

Spin from the Mighty Will! life-blazing, burn!" 

Then powers stupendous of empyrean lore 
We fancy edgeless ; chaos may inspire, 
Embryon suited. But, in vain with fire, 
Neap-wrought and toned, I adoration pour 
Of cherubim and seraphim, — would soar 
A pigmy thing, high heavens to explore. 

Yet not, thou all Omnipotent ! thine not. 
In thine unmanageable, labor near ; 
Untouch the Muse, as vacant to idea: 
'Tis true the spell of Paradise 's forgot, 
Ere fell the tvvain that could the soul uprear! 
Still, kind Creator, still there's virtue to revere : 
And more and more, as rolljng time, the sphere- 
Discordance rank in part, and fallen we, — 
Shall yearly harmonize until as free, 
Perchance as Eden was, as pure appear! 

And, as in grandeur we do re-ascend, 
To thee Redeemer we would make amend ; 
No weakness never from thy goodness tend; 
But, linked the glorious work, Eternity 
Shall praises, praises in communion blend ; 
One lay immense, one lay through all distend!— 
Then wisdom, goodness, piety or man. 
Might godlike from archangels understand. 



17 

Fabulous. 

A BLESsiD pair, (not always Nature knows,) 
Once in these sweet environs found a home — 
Ay! thence the field from whence the mansion rose'; 
Ample and neat it was, — but years have flown; — 
'Tis now no more! — there vegetation's strown, 
And various grain around extensive grows: 
Ton city's swell has roused the planter's bone ; 
The topping forests fell; where once the lawn's 

repose. 
Waxes the breezy blade, now, as the zephyr flows. 

They blessed mankind, and that in spirit too; 
Duty was rapture from their very prime : 
Twain souls conjugal! yet the weaiy woo — 
Would court distress, and lavish well their time ; 
Nor feel surprise, where virtues so combine, 
I say that indolence they never knew : 
Theirs were the Muses melting and sublime. 
" Indeed, indeed, such mightiness in two;" 
Not marvel I — too marvellously true. 

Theirs when the Spring had ground its coat of 

green, 
Yet, ere betimes unveiled was every tint, 
To issue forth and mingle in serene, — 
Afore the sun did up the orient wink, 
They meetly would, — and rare Aurora seen ; 
Still, they in fantasy the Graces drink, 
Ponder the verdure o'er, and, changing them6. 
Sing due the matin catch in whiles between. 

And, as in bays all languishingly bright, 
The crimson sun emblazons into sight ; 
Their sightly dwelling glassy o'er the way^ — 
They seek it duteous, and with ardor quite 
As erst ergession on the darkling day, 
For sky4)orn beauties of the moon-eyed sprite. 
' *2 



IS 

But, changes! changes! ever-changing mould, 
'Twere hard to sketch a minute of their tale: 
Suffice to say, ri^al lives and love — but hold, — 
Friends goodly could, and kin their loss bewail. 
But, ah! I dream : imagination's strolled, — 
The feats of man within the vale untold, 
His volant dale — his fluctuating goal. 

Then — What is man who comes and goes so cold? 
Ye sons and daughters gone — yes, gone! can ye 
untold! 



Death Scene in Gertrude of Wyoming. 

CAMPBELL. 

The three characters mentioned in the following passage, 
being warned of the approach of a hostile tribe of North 
American Indians, are lorced to abandon their peaceful re- 
treat, in the vale of Wyoming, and fly for safety to a neigh- 
boring fort. On the following morning, at sunrise, while 
Gertrude, together with Albert her father, and Waldegrave 
her husband, are looking from the battlements on the havoc 
and desolation which had marked the progress of the barba- 
rous enemy, an Indian marksman fires a mortal shot from 
his ambush at Albert; and, as Gertrude clasps him in agony 
to her heart, another shot lays him bleeding by his side. 
She then takes farewell of her husband in a speech which our 
greatest modern critic has described as * more sweetly pa- 
thetic ihan any thing ever written in rhyme." — JVP Diarmid. 

But short that contemplation — sad and short 
The pause to bid each much lov'd scene adieu! 
Beneath the very shadow of the fort, 
Where friendly swords were drawn, and banners 

flew, 
Ah! w^ho could deem that foot of Indian crew 
Was near? — yet there, with lust of murderous deeds, 
Cleamed like a basilisk, from woods in view. 
The ambushed foeman's eye — his volley speeds, 
And Albert — Albert fallsi the dear old father bleeds! 



19 

And tranced in giddy horror Gertrude swooned; 
Yet, while she clasps him lifeless to her zone, 
Say, burst they, borrowed from her father's wound, 
These drops 1 — Oh God ! the life-blood is her o\^n, 
And faltering, on her Waldegrave's bosom thrown ; 
'^ Weep not, O love!" she cries, "to see me bleed ; 
Thee, Gertrude's sad survivor, the^ alone — 
Heaven's peace commiserate ; for scarce I heed 
These wounds; yet thee to leave is death, is^eath 
indeed. 

" Clasp me a little longer, on the brink 

Of fate ! while I can feel Ihy dear caress; 

And, when this heart hath ceased to beat — Oh! 

think. 
And let it mitigate thy wo's excess, 
That thou hast been to me all tenderness, 
A friend, to more than human friendship just. 
Oh! by that retrospect of happiness. 
And by the hopes of an immortal trust, 
God shall assuage thy pangs — when I am laid in 

dust ! 

" Go, Henry, go not back, when I depart ! 

The scene thy bursting tears too deep will move, 

Where my dear father took thee to his heart, 

And, Gertrude, thought it ecstacy to rove 

With thee, as with an angel, through the grove 

Of peace, — imagining her lot was cast 

In heaven ; for ours was not like earthly love ; 

And must this parting be our very last? 

No! I shall love thee still, when death itself is past." 

^ Tt" * lP TV- 

Hushed were his Gertrude's lips! but still their 

bland 
And beautiful expression seemed to melt 
With love that could not die! and still his hand 

3 



20 

She presses to the heart no more that felt. 
Ah, heart! where once each fond affection dwelt;, 
And features yet that spoke a soul more fair. 
Mute, gazing, agonizing as he knelt^ — 
Of them that stood encircUng his despair, 
He heard some friendly words; — but knew not what 
they were. 



YouW s farewell to worldly blessings. 

In op'ning teens, the homes and hills, 
The copses round, the waves and rills — 
From partin,)^, keen affection fills! 
The soul of Youth may overflow, 
Will look betimes, and musing go; 
Yet, such is lovely, nobly so. 
The glow of worth, and not of wo! — 
Unheard the far-toned future knell, 
Unfelt the sick — the with'ring spell. 
When past and future strike — farewell? 

Lines on the grave of a suicide. 

Campbell. 
By strangers left upon a lonely shore,' 
Unknown, unhonored, was the friendless dead: 
For, child to weep, or widow to deplore. 
There never came to his unburied head — 
All from his dreary habitation fled. 
Nor will the lanterned fisherman at eve 
Launch on the water by the witches' tow'r, 
Where hellebore and hemloc seem to weave 
Round its dark vaults a melancholy bow'r, 
For spirits of the dead at night's enchanted hour. 

They dread to meet thee, poor unfortunate! 
Whose crime it was, on hfe's unfinished road 
To feel the step-dame buffetings of fate, 



21 

And render back thy being's heavy load. 

Ah! once^^erhaps, the social passions glowed 

In thy devoted bosom — and the hand 

That smote its kindred heart, might yet be prone 

To deeds of mercy. Who may understand 

Thy many woes, poor suicide, unknown? — 

He who thy being gave shall judge of thee alone. 



Autumn^ or Virtue amid decline. 

Now from the east breaks forth in amber beam, 
The m®rn autumnal of autumnal prime ; 
Earth, sky, and air in loveliness between, 
And man immortal as his soul sublime. 
Lives over all the majesty of Time! 

Yet, while coeval down, if not remiss 

in aught incumbent from Almighty God, 

'Tis virtue's way — 'tis innocence, to kiss 

The mourning morn, with feelings that accord, — 

The mellow hues of Autumn not devoid 

Of aught that ravishes the meaning mind: 

Though withering fast, the leaflet and the sward; 

Such charms commix, encircle so condign, 

Transform the dying vert to something quite benign: 

It whispers '^ Heaven," as rustling from the tree, 
Or, 'neath the tread, responding to the sound ; 
It whispers '^ Heaven," whilst from the orient (See!) 
In royal beauty rising from the ground — 
The sun's up flying as the leaf comes down! 



The Females fairest ; or premier affec- 
tions the only true ' basis and column of crowning 
Virtue. 

The fairest females — such goddess's peers, — 

Smiling in concert, or in melting tears, 

As up the happy to the happiest sing, 



22 

Or woes as wounding in a living thing. 
Does cruel pain, at times, their nature wring ; 
Else none, than sympathies as sisters, swell: 
?Souls, even anguished, on each ®ther dwell! 
In love and pity equally excel. 

Such — from their pristine years how kindly staid; 
Scenes godly interwoven do attend 
Their steps thenceforth, until in truth arrayed — 
The angel's greatness and the females' blend J 
So quaintly, some might question, yea, perpend, 
Whether they step to earth or tread the air — 
Hither descending, or do up ascend: — 
This as it may: The fairest of the fair 
In deeds of charity — unquestioned therA: 

Thus as along Time's transitory course, ^ 
They meekly move to solace and to sooth; 
How, from their pious souls' etherial source. 
Teems Friendship living! flowing thence profuse, 
Sparkles from each eye; them lovingly imbues 
To sheen expressions, till they eclipse stars: 
Kindling love's banners with the lightning's hues. 
Each deep'ning pupils, from its lashes, mars 
The very light of day, the star of eve, debars! 



Ominous abodements of the futurity of 

Infancy, 

Now existence is thine, and life is before thee; 
(Thus musing, supposing, on an infant near;) 
Frail offspring of nature! there's much to allure thee, 
And little to shield thee from misery here. 

Can those limbs which enclaps thee^ a parent's I 

deem, 
Embracing, supporting, unchanging endure? — 
Ah, infant fair-dawning! so fondly to seem ; 
Ere the sun gilds the morning, may clasp thee no 

more. 



23 

Unconscious! pure spirit, to answer in smiles; 
In such I would ever thy converse to be : 
Ne'er allured by delusion, as far from its wiles 
As now from remorse that concentres in me. 



*" How the fond, faithful heart, inspired to prove 
Friendship refined, the calm delight of love, 
Feels all its tender strings with anguish torn, 
And bleeds at perjured Pride^s inhuman scorn !^^ 

Fabulous. 

'TwAs once in June, at even, 
I sought the Willow-wild ; 
Sad, lonely, yet believing. 
An hour to beguile. 

A female there — beyond me,~ 
A sylvan of the shade. 
*^ Ah! stay" — the vista warned me 
To tarry in the glade : 

For lo in tearful sadness. 
The languid beauty bent; ^ 
Alas! in silent madness, 
Would features represent. 

Well there — the western halo 
Did vary all the while ; 
In purple, green, and yellow, 
Was dipped its sweetest smile: — • 

But, ah! how little greeting 
To fickle ' Fortune's child/ 
In Willow-wild a weeping, 
Of Weeping- willow-wild. 

The shire curfew trembles, 
The brilliant zone delays, 

^3 



24 

Each singer sane assembles 
To touch the trembhng lays: — 

But, ah! how little greeting 
To fickle ' Fortune's child,' 
In Willow-wild a weeping, 
Of Weeping-willow-wild. 

'Twas now, in piquant anguish, 
Would craze her listless mein ; 
Less frantic, now, would languish 
The injured lass between, — 

Not me — of words a meeting — 
To scan ill fortune's child, 
In Willow-wild-the-weeping, 
Of Weeping-willow-wild! 

I caught apart the anguish, — 
But not its wretched wane; 
Beheld her spirit languish 
In agonizing pain. 

So, yon aerial spangle. 
Should fickle fortune throw; 
So, might the fairest angel 
Gleam horror here — below! 

Came twilight, — and becalming 
Her guileless spirit now. 
Left hallowed spot the charming, — 
But, ah! the perjured vow ; 

For pangs a fever heating, 
She dies; A mother's smile. 
Adieu! the Willow-weeping : 
Farewell! the Willow-wild* 



25 

^' Oh I give me tears for others' woes, 
And patience for my own." 

Ah! wearied one, why life forlorn, 
So lonesome, lingering in the lease? 
Why! bleeding being weep the morn, 
Which woke thee in — departed peace ? 

Do, hapless self, coerce thy tears, 
Or roll them in creation's moan : 
How can a pilgrim of the spheres, 
Wash freely in himself alone! 

Has Job, has Daniel, Moses too, 
Has peerless Paul admonished you? 
Has Jeremiah, Joseph shone, 
Isaiah, David, Solomon? 

Has Jesus touched thy soul with love? 
Supernal does the measure prove? 
Explore his volume, nay nor spare, 
Unread, to trace him anywhere. 

Come, then, with us to yonder cell, 
And glance within the crevice through, 
And say^ that tenderness can dwell 
Thrice shackled and impoverished too. 

There, see! the galled durance see ! 
Turn youth. Oh! turn, and feel aloud 
In sighs, but not '^ unhappy me," — 
Whose shackle is a single shroud. 

And never, never hence forget, 
That generous wo is wo away: 
That manly's borne a public debt, 
United in the public pay. 



26 

** To be resigned when ills betide, 
Patient when favors are denied, 
And pleased with favors given. 
Dear Female, this is wisdom's part; 
This is that incense of the heart, 
Whose fragrance seents to heaven. ^^ 

No consanguineous guardians left 
Beneath the concave skies ; 
Of dearest prototypes befett, 
An orphan maiden sighs. 

O, doleful vicissitude of things! 
Where, now, the villa's calm? 
Where, now, my Philomela sings, 
Sequestered from alarm? 

As wont when once in affluence, 
The village purlieu I, 
To bless some huts of indigence, 
' Blithe skirted far and nigh : — 

Big tears as symbols of delight. 
Peeped e'en from sucklings' eyes ; 
Profluent leaped in lucid light. 
As blessed me they with sighs. 

Then I did bless, and blessed was, 
And sang my Philomel : 
Unblessing now, unblest, because 
We cannot do as well. 

Howbeit, I should murmnr not, 
For those I once could aid, 
Have forced me to their cleanly cot; 
And sure we are well repaid. 

Oft, now, whilst June is in perfume, 
Levant ere all in flames, 



27 

I rise, adore, and in the bloom 
Of dawn with blooming dames ; 

Go gladsome whither the water glides, 
To collect lillies, which 
Mansuete along its silken sides, 
Us damsels do bewitch. 

My nosegay plucked from aquose verge, 
I scent its perfume pure ; 
And kiss the humid bunch, and urge 
Mc on to town once more. 

As mornings past, with needlework 
I've hamlet left for thence 
To sell the same; at even murk 
Returning home with pence. 

So, thus I go for that effect. 
In tucker lillies gay ; 
My lillies, though, I don't expect 
To sell, but give away. 

Such' odoriferous posies theirs, 
Have evsr meant should be. 
Whom I might meet, of infant years, 
In ruth or charity. 

But, think how hazardous for me — 
An orphan virgin I, — 
To jaunt to mart into city. 
In trade to sell or buy : 

Yet, I have sought the Lord betimes. 
Whose guardianship's replete ; 
How weaned I am from earth — some lines 
Must evince. — I'll repeat : — 

" Not while an idea is in tune ; 
While beings we elsewhere commune ; 



28 

While Goodness wears a wasting tear, 
Or Wisdom wipes an eyelid here ; 

While pied the heavens — bespangled o'er, 
Or round the moon as cherubs more, — 
May never say, my spirit say — 
* Stamped to earth's crust.' " 

Aurora now 's too scared to blush, 
So blanched her every tinct ; 
And, now, I hear the city's rush, 
For yonder 's its precinct : 

And yonder, too 's a stripling who 
Is fast approaching me, — 
Alack! my lillies are in view 
I spy, and so spies he! 

He could no less : — " My dear," quoth he, 
^' Those flowerets I will buy; 
If, dear, you wish to sell ; why we; — 
They've surely struck my eye." 

Nonplused for answer, for, like love, 
I find he is full wily: 

Trembling^, she says, while falls her glove, 
*' Take, Sir, aquatic lilly!" 

My voice suppressed and manners queer, 
He makes he heard me not ; 
And, demure, only says, '' My dear!" 
As though he had forgot. 

Albeit, finally does add, 

^' Did say you somewhat illy?" — 

" You may \nistake," (my dearest lad I) 

^' I oflTered you a lilly." — 

*^ 0! then I may miss takcy^^ he cries, 
*' No longer I'll be wily; 



29 

With heart and hand I take the prize; 

I have the very lilly!" 

* * ^ * » 

And, now, remark us bridal pair, 
Repairing to our villa : 
We'll press our needy patrons there. 
And sing shall Philomela. 



The last Rose of Summer. 

MOORE. 

'Tis the last rose of summer left blooming alone, 
All her lovely companions are faded and gone ; 
Not a flower of her kindred, no rosebud is nigh, 
To reflect back her blushes, or give sigh for sigh. 

I'll not leave thee, thou lone one, to pine on the 

stem, 
Since the lovely are sleeping, go, sleep thou with 

them; 
Thus kindly I scatter thy leaves o'er thy bed. 
Where thy mates of the garden lie scentless and 

dead. 

Soon, soon may I follow, when friendships decay, 
And from love's shining circle the gems drop away; 
When true hearts lie withered, and fond^ ones are 

flown, 
Oh! who could inhabit this bleak world alone. 



God. 

DERZHAVIN. 

{From Bowring^s Russian Anthology.] 
Thou eternal One! whose presence bright 
All space doth occupy, all motion guide; 
Unchanged through time's all-devastating flight ; 



30 

Thou only God! There is no God beside! 
Being above all beings! Mighty One! 
Whom none can comprehend and none explore; 
Who fiU'st existence with thi/ self alone : 
Embracing all,— supporting, — ruling o'er^ — 
Being whom we call God — and know no more! 

In its sublime research, philosophy 

May measure out the ocean deep — may count 

The sands, or the sun's rays — but, God! for Thee 

There is no weight nor measure : — none can mount 

Up to thy mysteries. Reason's brightest spark, 

Though kindled by thy light, in vain would try 

To trace thy counsels, infinite and dark: 

And thought is lost ere thought can soar so high, 

Even like past moments in eternity. 

Thou from primeval nothingness didst call 

First chaos, thence existence; — Lord! on thee 

Eternity had its foundation : — all 

Sprung forth from thee: — of light, joy, harmony, 

Sole origin: — all life, all beauty thine. 

Thy word created all, and doth create ; ' 

Thy splendor fills all space with.rays divine. 

Thou art, and wert, and shalt be! Glorious! Great! 

Light-giving, life-sustaining. Potentate! 

Thy chains the unmeasured universe surround : 
Upheld by thee, by thee inspired with breath! 
Thou the beginning with the end hast bound, 
And beautifully mingled life and death! 
As sparks mount upwards from the fiery blaze, 
So suns are born, so worlds spring forth from thee ; 
And as the spangles in the sunny rays 
Shine round the silver snow, the pageantry 
Of heaven's bright army glitters in thy praise. 

A million torches lighted by thy hand 
Wander unwearied through the blue abyss: 



31 

They own thy power, accomplish thy command, 

All gay with lite, all eloquent in hiiss. 

What shall we call them? Piles of chrystal light — 

A glorious company of golden streams — 

Lamps of celestial ether burning bright — 

Suns lighting systems with their joyous beams? 

But thou to these art as the noon to night. 

Yes! as a drop of water in the sea, 

All this magnificence in thee is lost:— 

What are ten thousand worlds compared to thee? 

And what am I then? Heaven's unnumbered host, 

Though multiplied by myriads, and arrayed 

In all the glory of sublimest thought, 

Is but an atom in the balance, weighed 

Against thy greatness, is a cypher brought 

Against infinity I O, what am I then? nought! 

Nought ! yet the effluence of thy light divine, 
Pervading worlds, hath reached my bosom too ; 
Yes! in my spirit doth thy spirit shine, 
As shines the sun-beam in a drop of dj^w. 
Nought! yet I live, and on hope>pini(ms fly 
Eager towards thy presence ; for in thee 
1 live, and breathe, and dwell ; aspiring high, 
Even to the throne of thy divinity. 
I am, O God! and surely tJiou must be ! 

Thou art, directing, guiding all, thou art! 
Direct my understandinar, then, to thee; 
Control my spirit, guide mv wandering heait: 
Though but an atom midst immensity, 
Still I am something fashioned by thy hand! 
I hold a middle rank 'twixt heaven and earth, 
On the last verge of mortal being stand, 
Close to the realms where angels have their birth, 
Just on the boundaries of the spirit land! 

•4 • 



32 

The chain of being is complete in me; 
In me is matter's last gradation lost, 
And the next step is spirit — Deity! 
I can command the lightning, and am dust! 
A monarch, and a slave ; a worm, a god! 
Whence came I here? and how so marvellously 
Constructed and conceived? unknown! this clod 
Lives surely through some higher energy ; 
For from itself alone it could not be! 

Creator, yes! thy wisdom and thy word 
Created me! thou source of life and good! 
Thou spirit of my spirit, awd my Lord! 
Thy light, thy love, in their bright plenitude 
Filled me with an immortal soul, to spring 
Over the abyss of death, and bade it wear 
The garments of eternal day, and wing 
Its heavenly flight beyond this little sphere. 
Even to its source — to thee — ^its Author there. 

O thoughts ineflable! O visions blest! 
Though worthless our conceptions all of thee. 
Yet shall thy shadowed image fill our breast, 
And waft its homage to thy Deity. 
Thus seek thy presence, Being wise and good! 
Midst thy vast works admire, obey, adore : 
And, when the tongue is eloquent no more^ 
The soul shall speak in tears of gratitude. 



METAPHYSICAL SKETCHES 



Of the Passions ; Fear and Anger. 

The above, are the resisting and non-resisting 
passions of the human sensitive or animal nature. 
Being therein grounded, they are apart in their ac- 
tion from immediate direct mental influence ; or, in 
other words, as consequences from intellectual 
causes. This singleness of action which character- 
izes them, their ascendencies over the sensitive be- 
ing distinctly such, are plainly demonstrable in the 
' beast of the field, and its homogeneal like; however 
heterogeneal as respects formation, color, element, 
&c. Moreover, while these passions appear, as sole- 
I \y sensitive creatures, it is as evident they have not 
, the nervous primary affections coherent to the mind 
of man, nor the malevolence arising from the defi- 
I ciency of those affections. But to speak rather of 
I their casual influence in regard to man upqn his 
mental faculties : we find them powerfully influential 
in subverting the same; or which functions, by re- 
pulsing, can make them subordinate and as power- 
fully subservient to mental interests. Fear of the 
twain, beyond dispute, is, the broadest actor of the 
intellectual being; it is the most busy passion, de- 
lusive and real, upon the mind, and is even as 



34 

universal as thought itself: for it may by chimera be 
overstrained, and carried beyond its real confines ; 
and so, by indirect co-operalion with ideal abberra- 
tion, we may deem the world Ihe most distant parts of 
it as matter or bodies of hazard ; obstacles as multi- 
tudmous in their bearings, as a rapid succession of 
fancies can make them. Vapid (observe) as well as 
vital things, are thus drawn upon the mind in terror, 
and as evils too weighty to be resisted by the arm or 
voice of man : to be dreaded not. And, truly, with- 
in the very limits of truth, there is much to fear of 
this wn)rld, and very little to be counteracted or turn- 
ed aside by judicious intuition, much less ratiocina- 
tion. Now, on the other hand, the mere passion, 
Anger, is very much restricted : for (note) it can be 
opposed strictly only to sensitive beings, and to such, 
naturally, of approximate litigiousness ; though, in- 
deed, to any inferior that could any way excite ire. 
It has nought to oppose in the elements above or be- 
low, in vegetable substances, in the mysteries, &c. 
Still, in compliant conformation to sane idea, 4no[er 
or the resisting passion, may be a strong auxiliary 
as supporter and advancer to man's highest felicity : 
for not only will all fighting cease, but all fears of 
being buffeted ; and, consequently, prevailing har- 
mony with respect to both passions. As they now 
are in operation through the human family, they are 
far from harmony, and from being obsequious agents 
beneath the understanding ; and, consequently, a 
lack of understanding above them to make them so. 
Furthermore, in their present intractable state, it 
may not be easy to judge, which of the deuce in ex- 
cess is really the most destructive, the most paralyz- . 
ing to mental endeavors to humanize mankind. 
Probably, nearly equalization exists between them 
by the way of gravity ; though by this it ts not meant 
that their influence, with allusion to the nervous 



35 

mental system, is equally the same : for in man who 
is possessed of the nervous system, in him concep- 
tions of a fearful cast may produce anger ; in short 
it emenates from the passion fear, always, in man ; 
^nd even in brutes, which did it not, they would re- 
main unmoved, indifferent to self-preservation, or 
contention to appease painful feelings, as hunger, 
thirst, fears of young, ^c. In mankind fear being 
liable to ideal impressions, makes anger somewhat 
singularly erratic in some cases : but^ in all cases 
human and beastial, it is engendered, less or more, 
by fear as discomfiture of the temperature of the 
spirits of the passions' system ; and in man so 
much at least, as to occasion los^ of volubility of 
speech, easy boldness of phiz, idea, or the like. 

Specimen of either Passion, 
Lost Fear with pallid limbs convulsed — 
With thought bedimmed and sense distract — 
With shrunken blood and broken pulse — 
Each joint and muscle on the rack,— 
Rushes aghast! Upon his track 
The demon tears, and nothing slack — 
He feels the fury at his back; 
Still struggles on — as on he flees. 
Terrific turns at what he sees : 
Till, visage lax and sockets rent, 
He drops adown in palsy spent; 
Exhausted every terror sent, 
Or what his systems underwent, — 
He lies in restorating wheeze. 

Of reason reft with senses blunt, 
Raves Anger to the mortal brunt! 
Doth he recoil? — He springs amain, 
Swol'n gory, or with whitened frame : 

#4, 



36 

Revenge! revenge! — he feels the name, 
And sees as much, but not with brain; 
That's topsyturvey quite. 
With Ang-er fell, 'tis all the same, 
As eyeless on will fight the frame, 
And headless — could the crazy game, 
Still bang about upright. 

Let us beware of the banes of art: for preturnatu- 
ral, as well as natural aids, are poor friends ! It is 
true they cannot transmute the virtuously rooted 
mind to the wickedly rooted one; being casual evils 
in relation to it, and which enforce casual infirmities 
upon the mind of the single individual to his own un- 
happiness, disease, and despondency, — by the way 
the very reverse of mental immorality, as that 
prompts to wicked intent by wicked thought directly 
from the mind, and which, instead of injuriasr our in- 
dividual person only and casually, turns our disin- 
genuous soul coolly to outward infringement of the 
person of others. Since, as casual evils however, 
they are deranging to mind and body, they must 
weaken and perturb the power of self-possession, 
self-dependence, and self happiness; and so after 
this manner lay us open to innumerable disasters, 
slanderous delinquencies, and too sorely to the in- 
siduous artifices of the immoral mind. 

He who cannot espy farther before than he can 
behind, is a dangerous guide. 

How seldom do we take care of ourselves. Often, 
unhelping, we pass the helpless when time is more 
than ours, as beyond we have no aim save mere mo- 
tion. 



37 

To act from the grand principle of charity, exten- 
sively, were to advance one another by spiritual 
force ; instead of advancing before one another by 
natural force only, in imitation of the spirit, and, as 
consequent, retrograding, verily, as fast as we can. 
Now it is owing to this discous default, that so little 
headway is made the right way ; that objects of 
charity are almost universally disseminated by ob- 
jects of charity. Magnanimous, then, shall be its 
progression, when, holily swift in the spirit, we shall 
scarcely be seen to do in the natural man; yet hold 
up and progress one another intentionally more, 
than we thrust back and detrude accidentally. At 
the present time it is vice versa; outrageously so, and 
in all probability, more or- less has been with us, 
ever since our first parents' sin and abasement. 

How semblant simplicity and flattery: yet what 
essentially differ more! 

It is one thing for us to understand asd feel infir- 
mities, and to govern our sphere of duty accordingly. 
Another, unfelt, to understand them, and command 
accordingly our sphere of duty. 

Those whom we cfannot understand, or those who 
cannot understand us to our understanding, we are 
prone to conceit they are void of the same to that 
degree ; being so ourselves. Even none of Adam 
and Eve's lineage, is unwise in his own eyes, as to 
that ; for every one, whatever be his years and abil- 
ities, is wiser at the present period of his existence, 
than he ever was hitherto, or ever shall be: and the 
reason of this is, there is not a whit of intrinsic wis- 
dom in this world that may be cognoscible to the de- 
pendant capacity of humanity. Our present ideas 

5 



38 

can have no cognizance of their presence ; of what 
are forthcoming ; or of what are past as now present 
to mind: and when though immediately so by se- 
quent ideas, they are instinctively forced the instant^ 
and that to catch but a jot of matter of vast nature, by 
means of comparison. This matter of fact to our 
ideas may be within us ; or with the antipodes, so it 
belongs to this world: for no ideas, while we are so- 
journers here, can be formed out of the world ; and, 
moreover, whatever we imagine in il, as something 
transcendent over the intellecj^tral being, as a dero 
gation consequently of him ; so far as we wander 
from the human model, so far we disparage our best 
sample of harmony and symetry. Perhaps, all that 
we have intelligence of upon earth, amounts to no 
more than degrees of folly less or more, which ac- 
cording to the pre-eminency of comparison, is ana- 
logically analyzed as such ; which gives, by the wayy 
an assortment of virtue and vice, of moral science 
and vicious desultory art ; leaving us, nevertheless, 
ignoramuses still : for to be otherwise, to be a whit 
wise, we must, apparently, be all-wise ; at least we 
must know what that is meant for in every point of 
view, that we profess to know and appreciate in some. 
Upon the whole, no sin in the sight of heaven shall 
accrue from an humble estimation of ourselves, as 
our virtues are, irrefragably, few and feeble ; and 
only a condescension to them, can show us in justice 
their paucity and imbecility. 

To live a continent, philanthropic, energetic state 
of celibacy, from consideration that the fallen state 
of the intellectual world is so, because of the risen 
state or overwhelming propagation of the natural 
world, would be the criterion of the most noble love. 



39 

Wonder^ia the first emotion of the well-organized 
infant irtfnd in epming into existence. As such it is 
forerunner and interior trait of rising idea in the 
mind, through the seasons of intancy, childhood, and 
adolescency ; and, indeed, through adult years to 
the last hours of life, as marvellousness or credulous- 
ness, the mere hissk of wonder, is subordinate to it ; 
that if predominated, would be the depression of won- 
der from the ushering in to the exit of mind from its 
earthly tabernacle, ; itself at the same time continu- 
ing passive nearly to adult years; when it would make 
its appearance in fatuous conceptions of trite and 
common things and actions, so as to make mysterious 
what to wonder would be actually common-place. 

To be really ungrateful, is to be unconscious of 
ingratitude. For such to follow, then, its depravity 
must come, and directly come, from the intellectual 
system of thought, which, in its inborn degeneracy, 
will not dictate as a monitor to the scrutiny of the 
evil : and how can it in truth, when it acquiesces 
in, and prompts the evil immediately itself! On the 
other hand, casual ingratitude or ingratitude of the 
system of the senses, comes entirely from impassion- 
ed sensibilities ; by the way of fear, or from anger 
produced by fear, from painful wounds of body, from 
the effects of inebriation as the consequence of use 
or nnis usage of stuffs, drugs, liquors, S^c. And, as 
soon as deranged feeling becomes restored to its 
healthy state, the unadulterated mental functions in- 
spect what has passed while it slept; and seeing, 
and feeling now in the nervous affections, that there 
has been misconduct, it awakens the compunctions 
of remorse to regeneration. This casual ingratitude, 
undoubtedly occurs more frequently ia Christendom 



40 

thaa the occasion does that discloses the ingratitude 
of mental depravity. 

Compassion is active pity carried into force and 
effect by physical energy and combined original vir- 
tues and undei standing. Pity is the fountain-head 
of compassion, and is circumscribed and passive, as 
to reason and corporal energy ; for we may pity a 
league off, but not compassionate. 

He who stoops to pick up a failing of humanity, 
adds one more to his own stock. 

Untied the galled idler from school, youth often 
turns and spurns what coming age limps back to ad- 
mire. 

The malevolent sensations of the nervous sys- 
tem, at the most do not more than other classes of 
people, characterize travellers, navigators, back- 
settlers, nor, in fine, any who are itinerant for good 
purposes ; or even any who in mendicancy wander 
and wonder about free from active vice : and, '* from 
low farms, poor pettying villagers, sheep cotes, and 
mills, sometimes with lunatic bans, sometimes with 
prayers, enforce their charity." For such sensa- 
tions are the most in perturbation in commonwealths 
and communities, from the civil intestine discords 
betwixt contiguously localized man and man in their 
endeavors to make flourish and to defend their re- 
spective accumulations. 

Nothing, peradventure, of this Ijfe, is a more dif- 
ficult task, than to convmce the understanding of 
another, that you have a tittle of the Utopian your- 



41 

self, and that that tittle is in conformable operation 
to its highest interests ; whilst the least visible to 
the naked eye of sense, is preposterous to the same 
in your exterior ; the consequence, perhaps, of habit, 
bodily imbecility or decrepitude, bodily debility — of 
what not pertaining to disordered nature only. It 
will not be amiss in the light of justice, if we would 
trace and be convicted of absolute absurdity, for us 
to have in mind, as preparatory thereto — that though 
it is rational to think we see, it is more so to see we 
think. 

The seven primary affections of the intellectual 
and moral system of man, Jealousy, Shame, Grief, 
Despair, Joy, Sorrow, and Pity. Jealousy would 
appear to be the leading one, or rather the channel 
in which the others in confluence meet. May not 
its ascendant influence in relation to them, bear si- 
militude to that of the integral body of time over its 
distinctions ; and to that of the primary color red 
over the other primary hues, 4rc., Sfc, 

Avarice, incest, actual stupration of another's per 
son, innocent entirely of seducing acquiesence, and 
perfidious ingratitude of the mental and moral sys 
tem; — it would appear, may be propensities only of 
the most contractedly rooted judgment and moral 
sensibilities. 

All reformation, national or individual, must com- 
mence at the source of the reforming spirit, to the 
unconditional prohibition of that thing to be reform" 
€id or done away. 

#5 



42 

Mercy we show, when we lessen inlliction by the 
cries and entreaties of the sufferer. Clemency or 
lenity, wh^n mitigating punishment in accordance to 
our mild and charitable views of the nature of the 
crime. But the great virtue compassion, we com- 
mand and govern, when in commisseration we feel 
and heal the wounds of the truly innocent in afflic- 
tion. 

Malice is the grossest corruption of ihe mind; the 
feculence of envy. 

Joy is the most crank, simple, pleasurable affec- 
tion uf the primaries ; and in its siniplicity the most 
early developed of them all. Proximate to which is 
sorrow, and after follow pity and shame before the 
season of puberty. 

Suspicion is the wavering to and fro of the mind, 
in a vague and indiscriminate manner. As such it 
may be posterior to jealousy where breach of virtue 
has come to light, and emanate from it ; but not 
jealousy posterior to and emanate from suspicion. 
Though seemingly synonymous, judgment, it would 
appear, characterizes the one, and misjudgment^the 
other* 

The more of this world's goods we can command 
by noble means for noble ends, the more its material 
matter, the root of all evil when absorbing the soul 
to annihilation, may be metamorphosed to the root 
of all good, and the most ample range be cleared by, 
and for, talent, innocence, wisdom and beneficence. 



43 

*The true ridiculous, or to be truly ridiculous, is to 
te risible at what is queerly antic, immediately and 
intuitively forced upon the mind. When its linea- 
ment is of this character, it is of an innocent com- 
plexion, as to the hidden intents of the mind ; as it 
solely arises from coincidence of outward things, so 
capriciously coming together, as to impulse the 
mind to spasmodic utterance of what cannot so rea- 
dily be uttered by full verbal accents. Still, it is 
but an ordinary saw, *^ Laugh and be wise:" except 
we can understandingly, at the acme folly of laugh- 
ter; and in idea virtually enjoy what, it would ap- 
pear, is the most laughable of every thing pertaining 
to mind and matter. It is a quality of human nature 
that may admit of dissimulatian, as well as simula- 
tion ; and may be very uglily used as a mask to 
spumous, malign feeling, obliquely vented while the 
matter of jest is alive to others in innocence, and 
may be seemingly as innocently jocund therewith, to 
any one present, in our dissimulation ; though, at the 
very time, otherwise taken as we would have it, by 
the person or persons, the butt of inoffensive hilar- 
ity in others. From the above, the ridiculous, friv- 
olous or virulent in tendency, is the progenitor 
of much disguised wickedness, or wo disguised in 
mirth. How comely then " is the tear of sympathy, 
and the heart that melts at the tale of wo." 

Genuine wit is a quality not homogeneous with 
that of laughter ; for the eye of pity always, and, 
generally, delicacy and chastity of pithy idea do 
govern and overrule its pencil. Whereas, objects 
or scenes constituting laughter, do, in most cases, 
give forth the converse : repugnant to true feelings 
of wit, not only from their chaotic cast, but from 



44 

tKerc being objects or scenes more exciting to pity, 
shame^ or indignation, &,c. 

There is a wide difference betwixt simulation and 
dissimulation. The latter is a defect of the mental 
and moral system exclusively. The former is cir- 
cumstantial as to time, place, &c. ; the casual re- 
sult of pusillanimity, or bodily abberration, pain or 
the like of the system of the senses. Most common- 
ly, fear of some portentous or impending evil is the 
foundation of it ; which reaching the mind, compels 
it to coincide with that evil submissively, to which, 
in reality, it is foreign and averse. The most virtu- 
ous and uniform are sometimes constrained, and in 
wisdom and uprightness, to simulate in the face of 
the mentally wicked \ as instrumental in protracting 
their lives, or in freeing themselves from mancipa- 
tion, for works of wisdom and benevolence. Or we 
are led to simulate in the face of the virtuously 
minded, as well as the wickedly, in order to screen 
casual vices, as respects our mind, of which we are, 
consequently, consciously knowing. Shame moves 
us to veil them from the former ; fear moves to co- 
ver them from the latter, that they may not have 
means to injure our credit and rights. But dissimu- 
lation, from its very nature, can never be the cause, 
or effect of shame, fear, anguish, &c.; as the mental 
is never passively innocent, but, more or less in 
clandestine and active vice. 



The primary affections, indisputably, are more 
pure in the female sex than in the male; and, neces- 
sarily, the corruptions of them less vile and general : 
particularly envy, malice, bombastic scorn and dis- 
dain, and covetous ambition. And the bare suppo- 



45 

sition is no hypothesis of a few minutes confutation. 
That were the quintessence extracted, of the male 
and female character, and well weighed in the 
mind, the balance would preponderate in favor of 
the female sex^ as the paramount and leading sex: 

A just reviewal of past life will always awaken in- 
terest beyond the grave. The interim between us 
now and the tomb, is the world : if we look to it 
blank to the past, we shall not look beyond it ; but 
go backwards in spirit with the waning residue of 
past amnesty. 

Pity, of all the primary affections, is the most fre- 
quently called upon in public life ; its unsuspecting 
innocence the most easily wheedled and imposed up- 
on ; and its manner, the most readily clapped on 
hypocritically. 

There are two fixed distinctions of order to be 
found in the universe of man and matter. Order of 
the essence of the spirit to etherial gravitation; and 
of course, the matter in its place that followeth 
though it be disorderly in the letter. Order of the 
matter of ideas, without regard to the purport of its 
gravity, that it be in no wise wicked, and the major 
of it chastened to etherial love or harmony. ^* To 
know things well, we should know them in detail ; 
and that i§ in a manner infinite; our knowledge, 
therefore, is always superficial and imperfect." 

A nation licentious of head and hand is far less ig- 
noble, than one slavishly submissive of head and 
hand. 



46 

The parent of malice — envy, that deadly foe to 
admiration, and the most intimate crony of slander, 
the progeny of flattery, is the only affection of the 
primary or corrupt, that reverses to extremes, or 
wheels from ideas of others' good to instant aversion 
of the same to make one affection. Thus, envy, not 
only being far below the impurity of hate, as hate, of 
whatever degree, only warps us so far as to counter- 
check a supposed or actual evil in other, appearing 
to or directed upon us;. — but good being the object 
of its aversion, it is the offspring of mind that is 
gone, or in much hazard of going, to perdition. En» 
vy having no virtue, it has no bearmg on intrinsic 
worth to actual violation or knowledge of it. Were 
it to know virtue, it would be like unto it; principles 
of virtue known, being principles of virtue loved, 
felt, and possessed. Let us beware, then, of the 
terrene dross. The mediocrit mind (as the world 
may choose to term it) free from its influence ; — 
could it trace that mind while in part cotemporary 
with it, its forthcoming career, — it would find 
how awfully great, sooner or later, it becomes; 
and this for having lived up to the undying princi- 
ples of mental innocence, or purity from wicked in- 
tent, while a palmer below. Surely it would seem, 
mental strength and mental innocence are twin-born 
sisters ! 

Every ascendant propension of the mind, that car- 
ries with it a spark of emulation tending either to 
friendly or unfriendly rivalry, is comprised under the 
head ambition. Only those of the latter tendency 
induce us to seek solely our individual gratifications, 
shiftless as to merit and demerit in the eye of the 
mind personally and collectively; being more or less 



47 

to some compass or other, f under the domination of 
the puff of popularity, a prey to i^^ smirk and syco- 
phancy, or to its sneer and decrial. Whilst those of 
the former move us to advance the real weal of every 
one with whom concerned, by advancing them 
where, and in what, we can on principle by princi- 
ple Thus two in friendship, males or females, or 
differing in sex, shall bring about each other^s good 
by attending, as it were, to the promotion/or eacli 
other's welfare in each other's stead. Whenever 
good is conferred upon the one by the other, the re- 
ceiver being blessed with the same, is stimulated m 
gratetul feeling to return the favor, arid, if feasible, 
more ' than return : and, while thus gratitude 
prompts to the excelling in grace for the other s 
sake, so to excel is the mean aspired at in ambition 
to surpass likewise. 

Weeds not extirpated, but trodden under foot, 
shall become serpents in the grass. Intellectual 
force is the only true force, to course up the heights 
of heavenward philanthrophy. Therefore when 
fuch begins to lag, and in place of it as shackles 
only upon augmenting evils of jiarty spirit, the laws 
of arbitrary art, upstarting ffom fallacious seeing, 
hearsay, and feeling, are resorted to,— craft that so 
perverted may become at last, that vice shall give 
law to virtue;— it will augur painfully the tower of 
Babel, the bewilderment of all right reason, the only 
true force to general order and happiness through 
society. 

Nothing of the human being js a standard to guage 
the tenor of his mind, as virtuous or wicked, but the 
law of mental innocence, which to this end must be 



48 

implanted therein, and that gives cognition person- 
ally only. For it is a melancholly truth, that the 
mentpl system may be dead to innocence of inten- 
tion to a degree incredibly disingenuous ; and, yet, 
studied uniformity accoramodHte the outer man with 
all acumen to surrounding events. We shall not 
give way to anxious fears, to excessive anger, to 
dejection-of mind^ to impassioned ejaculations of any 
cast ; shall not uphold that unpopular, nor withdraw 
from this popular party ; shall not sacrifice reputa- 
tion to noxious stimulants, (solely to, the root of 
which to its eradication, temperance, brotherly 
should converge :) in short, punctilious that unfair 
words or gests, shall not contradict seeming fair ideas, 
rather than conscious fair ideas, shall controvert the 
words or gests unfair. 

The three sorts of pride. Self-esteem, vanity, 
and the plebian contemptuous pride. The first 
(self-esteem) is much void of affectation, being a 
characteristic of superior mental endowments. In 
weighty reflections and comparisons of individual 
desert respectively, its traits mainly live ; so that 
where duly formed are its estimations of ourselves 
and others, we shall ever walk up means to ends 
with dignity in the scale of being, not vaunting like 
to the vulgar pride. 

Vanity is a more feminine quality, humorous and 
innocently fantastic ; and as such conspicuously 
most afore, and awhile after, the season of puberty. 
There are many grades of it down to grossness; but 
the fairest lives in pleasing, flying fancies of our own 
qualifications, our accomplishments, and fashionable 
embellishments ; our smiles, dialect, delicacy, car- 



49 

riage, habiliments ever novel, etc., all as delight- 
some to ourselves, and, too, as much so to every body 
-else. To this end, physical beauty born with a 
spirit of vanity, is rather disinclined; and is apt to 
degenerate to the plebean pride, to which vanity of 
the most innocent form considered in itself is far 
from being obnoxious through all its ramifications. 
Its character being to please and to be pleased, it 
awakens within us the social graces in ambition to 
excel and to exceed ; and when surpassed it inspires 
only to crowd more sail, while we in the rear are 
not contemned. 

The contemptuous pride is neither mental, inno- 
cent, nor feminine; but a quality morose, brazen, 
and gadding to our nature in contempt of others. It 
interchanges in common with other corruptions of 
the ideal system ; while it moves us to arrogance 
against whatever may look like poverty of purse,- 
dress, badge, station, &c.— The three grades, m all 
probability, take their modifications from the whole 
mind's confirmation. 

The intellectual being, in combination includes 
three circumscribed systems of vitality, •Mife rising 
still on life" in gradual refining process. The most 
subhmed— the prerogative of humanity alone, is the 
moral and mental system. As such it kn«ws the 
power of xiomparison, choosing, at option, one thing 
over another tending to the greatest or meanest ex- 
tremc, according to the power of comparison. It is, 
too, the fount of the cardinal affections, and the cor- 
mpt^nes which predominate over, or are subordi- 
nate to, the cardinals, according to inferiority or su- 
periority of moral mental system. Next comes the 
6 



50 

animal system of sense; or the casual operator, as 
respects the leading system of thought. Comprised 
within it, at least, are the three most sensitive and 
vivific instinctive powers ; seeing, feeling, hearing: 
the passions, fear and anger; and the sexual amato- 
ry. The next and least, is the nutritive system; 
comprising the passive, sterile senses of taste and 
scent, and the appetites of hunger and thirst. 

If when we have arrived to mature years of self- 
action and dependence, we try to, and can, defraud 
a fellow-being of a half-penny, callous to all innate 
crimination; we can with little innate concern, de- 
fraud a person of any mass of coin or property, were 
circumstances of so calamitous a nature to his legal 
rights, as to screen us from all pubhc judicature as 
tiarkly in the case as in that of a half-penny. 

Astonishment is of two classes. The one arises -* 
at unexpected obliquity, as such in opprobrious lan- 
guage or demeanor striking upon the mind and act- 
ing, more or less, on the comparing power to the ex- 
citement of painful or disagreeable emotions in the 
nervous region of the breast; such as hate, pity, de- 
spair, anger, and indignation intermingling: espe- 
cially if the misconduct, astonishing, be that of a 
youth's or junior's. The other class gives excite- 
ment, in beholding some works of nature, science, or 
art, as strikingly novel, grand, stupendous, mons- 
trous, terrible, &.c. The mental and moral system 
is weakly, and indirectly, acted upon, while the cas- 
ual system of sense is chiefly affected; giving rise in 
the character of astonishment, to surprise, wonder, 
marvellousness, amazement, terror, and horror. 



51 

There are two kinds of hatred. One is aversion 
to undeserved evil throvrn, or directed intentionally, 
upon us. Were it deserved, or what we in the same 
spirit in which it was sent, would retort back ; re- 
vengeful malice would come over us, instead of this 
hateful aversion. The other is aversion to wicked 
or polluted conduct in general, without askaunt 
bearing to individual infringement particularly. 

All pastimes and games resorted to in the season 
of juvenility, which are not founded on imagination, 
or what is the immutable property of children, one 
and all, to their brotherly harmony, are very perni- 
cious and empoisoning to all frank intentions and 
pure affections, that should be fostered to their un- 
folding in childhood. Such pastimes are favorable 
as rest in sounds, terms^ harmless gesticulations ; 
things of touch, but not of take by any game of haz- 
ard, as marbles are taken, coppers, buttons, pins, 
and tiny things seemingly ; but of momentous mag- 
nitude, for they may sway empires. 

Despair is of three grades: one only of which is a 
primary. That arises in the mind, from sudden 
strong conception of the total prostration, to appear- 
ance, of some laudable design to which the soul con- 
centrated; that is fallen to nought now by unforse©n 
incidences, or by the machinations of the mentally 
ill-disposed person or persons. Resistance in frenj 
zied anger is made with much impetus ; but not 
knowing what to resist, it either has no-^xed direc- 
tion, or it is turned to desperati)sin upon the individ- 
ual's self The exclamation — "Ail these things 
are against me!" tinges not slightly of this despair. 



52 

The next grade to the primary, is of strong men- 
tal cast, but differs widely from the prime one in 
other respects, mainly in that it is under the oppo- 
site passion fear to an unhappy degree. The phre- 
netic imagination of the individuaVis worked upon by 
every fearful, strange, and uncouth image that such 
an imagination can depict ; and which are, rarely^ 
in substance no where present ; and when so, wide- 
ly distorted from the reality. 

The third grade is the product, or is seated in the 
passion of fear ; but is the most inferior and common 
as respects the activity of intellect: still no cast of 
character has certain exemption from its influence. 
Unlike the last mentioned above, all fearful scenes 
and shapes whatever, are actually so to the senses, 
and are received immediately from without upon 
their superficial functions; rarely entering deep 
enough for ideal hallucination to confirmation of 
madness within from causes there; and whenever so, 
barren of the prolific imaginations of the former 
grade. These fearful scenes giving rise to it, are 
mostly the commotions of the natural world; as in 
earthquakes, hurricanes, shipwrecks, sudden Wars, 
^•c. To such horrors, while the most original mind 
may conch in distraction ; the most obdurate myr- 
midon may also, who cannot be influenced by the 
two superior grades. 



I 



1 



ANECDOTES. 



A rattlesnake was destroyed many years ago, 
having only seventeen rattles or buttons ; but meas- 
ured lengthwise nine feet four inches and a half, and 
about six inches in diameter at its middle ; which 
was remarkably wasted, so that its ribs and spine 
plainly protruded When first observed, it was in 
the act of horrifying from the ground, a squirrel of 
the largest species in a tree. On being immediately 
killed, it was opened; and two squirrels ofthe same 
species were found inside ; both of which, to appear- 
ance, pretty lately engorged. 

A short time previous to the above, one was killed 
in the vicinity, of a much inferior size ; yet having 
twenty-four rattles. 

* 

A chickensnake literally crammed with young 
chicks, was discovered crawling away from a hen- 
roost, by the cackling, stupor, and dizzinesg ofthe 
poultry, which the stench and strangeness of the 
snake had occasioned. It had, moreover, one chick 
alive betwixt its jaws, which sow wap rescued; and 
#6 



/ 



fi4 



its body being immediately opened^ the foremost was 
taken out and resuscitated. 

Another of the same in a wood, was discovered 
awkwardly moving along, laden inside and o«t with 
leverets which it had purloined from a cony's bur- 
row a short distance away. Having first eaten its 
fill to satiety, it had taken one between its jaws, one 
at its middle tie4 with the same in a half-knot, and 
another within a curve of its tail; though not com- 
pletely secured as in its struggles it would work out. 

While some animals move easy and concise in 
their instincts to main effects or final results, others 
propjf^nsed to efiects or results as final, are in their 
movements as far prolix and laborsome. For exam- 
ple : a large grreenish wasp was known to drag a 
worm mudi.l^ger than itself, and over grassy uneven 
ground, and for more than a quarter of a mile, for 
the sole purpose to deposit it in a hole in the earth. 
On digging into which, it was found to have depos- 
ited others there of the same sort. 



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